By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
In describing game one of last Saturday's Cheney-Medical Lake softball doubleheader Lady Hawks head coach Gary Blake put things as delicately as possible.
“That was probably one of the ugliest games I've ever been in,” the Lady Hawks skipper said Monday night.
Six Cheney errors in the first three innings coupled with walks and opportune Medical Lake hitting gave the Lady Cards a 10-3 lead. It was a lead they could not hold once Cheney settled down defensively and the bats warmed up, outscoring Medical Lake 11-3 and holding on for a 14-13 win.
In the nightcap Cheney exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the first and made amends for their first game miscues by playing errorless ball in cruising to a 19-7 win in five innings.
In game one the Lady Hawks answered Medical Lake's four runs in the top of the first with three of their own in the bottom, getting a 2RBI triple from Gracie Pitts and RBI ground out from Nora Ifft. The Lady Cards responded with four runs in the second – none earned – and two more in the third.
But in the bottom of the third Cheney's offense opened up. Katie Bethel reached on a throwing error by the Medical Lake shortstop, and after Mandy McDowell flied out Pitts singled, followed by Ifft's 2RBI triple and RBI singles from Bailey Towey, Kelsey Pearce and Amy Anderson, along with Samee Silvieus' RBI triple; cutting the lead to one.
That was erased in the fourth when McDowell tripled to lead off and scored on Pitts fly-out to left. The Lady Hawks took the lead in the fifth on an RBI single up the middle by Anderson, scored two runs to make it 13-10 when the Medical Lake leftfielder lost a fly ball in the sun and then 14-10 on Pitts RBI single to left.
Medical Lake scored two runs in the sixth and made things interesting in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs on two walks and a botched infield pop-up by Cheney's defense. Nikki King followed with an RBI single to center that Sierra Vijarro scooped up and made a relay throw home to Silvieus to get an ML runner trying to score from second.
Silvieus then threw to Pitts to double up a Lady Cards' runner trying to reach third from first. On the next batter, Silvieus gunned down King trying to steal second to end the game.
McDowell got the win, giving up 13 runs, only four earned, on 10 hits while striking out 10, walking four and hitting three. Pitts was 3 for 3 at the plate with 4RBI, McDowell 3 for 4 with 2RBI and Anderson 2 for 4 with 2RBI to lead Cheney offensively.
Cheney got all it really needed in the first inning of game two, sending 13 players to the plate and scoring nine runs on two hits each from Vijarro (RBI single, 2RBI triple), McDowell (RBI single, RBI triple) and RBI singles by Pitts and Williams along with Bethel's RBI groundout.
Medical Lake scored three in the second, but Cheney got those back in the third on a bases loaded walk by McDowell and Pitts' 2RBI single. The Lady Hawks put the 10-run rule into play in the fourth on an RBI triple by Ifft, RBI doubles by Pitts and Silvieus and RBI singles from McDowell, Anderson and Bethel, along with Vijarro's RBI groundout.
The Lady Cards got four in the fifth but it wasn't enough.
Towey got her first varsity win on the mound, giving up seven runs on nine hits, striking out four and walking two. Offensively McDowell was 3 for 3 with 4RBI, Silvieus 3 for 3 and an RBI, Pitts 3 for 4, 4RBI and Vijarro 2 for 3 with 5RBI.
Overall Pitts and McDowell went 6 for 7 on the afternoon, moving Pitts' average to a team leading .486 while Silvieus' 4 for 5 day brought her to .469.
The sweep puts Cheney in second place in Great Northern League play at 5-3, 6-4 overall. They trail West Valley (8-0, 9-0) by three games with the Eagles coming to town Saturday for a doubleheader.
The Lady Hawks received some bad news late last week when their No. 1 pitcher Nicole Lane broke her hand in an off-field incident, losing her for at least 3-4 weeks. Blake said other elements of their game would have to carry the load.
“Right now Mandy (McDowell) and Bailey (Towey) are trying to step up and if they do we should be good because we're hitting up and down the line up right now,” he said, adding Cheney has four players batting over .400 and four more over .300.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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